During my week in the early years setting I was able to observe the continuous provision that had been put in place across two reception classes. I observed; the focussed adult initiated sessions, the child initiated time and the assessments completed by the teachers.
This week furthered my understanding about assessment in the early years. The teachers completed observation forms when the child did something they have never done before which furthered their learning. On many occasions I saw the teachers making notes on post-it’s of achievements the children had made. The importance of assessment in the early years is widely recognised in literature; Hurst and Lally argue that observational assessment records are vital for matching the curriculum to individual needs of the child. A survey by Lally reported six main reasons suggested by nursery staff for the keeping of observational records:
1. To find out about children as individuals.
2. To monitor the progress (or lack of it) of individual children.
3. To inform curriculum planning.
4. To enable staff to evaluate the provision they make.
5. To provide a focus for communication with others.
6. To make the job more enjoyable.
(Baker.C, 1992)
This type of assessment could be replicated in an older setting as it would give teachers the chance to do all of the above. If the observations were made explicit with the children it would allow them to celebrate their success and work on their weaker areas.
During adult initiated activities I also witnessed what structured learning looked like in the early years environment, I was able to see how children we separated into ability groups to work on literacy, numeracy and phonics for 20 minutes at a time. The activities used in these adult led sessions gave me ideas that I could adapt to use with older children for example some phonics games that could be used with KS1 such as ‘cross the river’ and ‘trash or treasure’. Although I was surprised the children were grouped by ability at such a young age, I was able to see the benefit for the children. Nomi discusses how ability grouping can be effect children in the early years
“… ability grouping may improve achievement for all students in schools with advantageous characteristics, mostly private schools, and may reduce achievement inequalities, because low-ability students benefit the most from this practice.” (Nomi, T. 2009)
When observing in the reception classes and speaking to the teachers it became evident that there were certain pressures which effected how they taught in their classrooms. Research suggests that there are four main influences on the teaching in the early years “practitioners' beliefs about how literacy should be taught; different interpretations of the Foundation Stage curriculum guidance, both of which may be linked to training and experience; perceived external pressure from the demands of the primary school curriculum and parental pressure.” (Miller,L. Smith, AP. 2010)
Form this placement I plan to take the games into my future practice. I also plan to take the assessment sheets created by the teachers in the reception classes and adapt them for my own classes to allow the children to celebrate their successes and work on their weaknesses.
This week furthered my understanding about assessment in the early years. The teachers completed observation forms when the child did something they have never done before which furthered their learning. On many occasions I saw the teachers making notes on post-it’s of achievements the children had made. The importance of assessment in the early years is widely recognised in literature; Hurst and Lally argue that observational assessment records are vital for matching the curriculum to individual needs of the child. A survey by Lally reported six main reasons suggested by nursery staff for the keeping of observational records:
1. To find out about children as individuals.
2. To monitor the progress (or lack of it) of individual children.
3. To inform curriculum planning.
4. To enable staff to evaluate the provision they make.
5. To provide a focus for communication with others.
6. To make the job more enjoyable.
(Baker.C, 1992)
This type of assessment could be replicated in an older setting as it would give teachers the chance to do all of the above. If the observations were made explicit with the children it would allow them to celebrate their success and work on their weaker areas.
During adult initiated activities I also witnessed what structured learning looked like in the early years environment, I was able to see how children we separated into ability groups to work on literacy, numeracy and phonics for 20 minutes at a time. The activities used in these adult led sessions gave me ideas that I could adapt to use with older children for example some phonics games that could be used with KS1 such as ‘cross the river’ and ‘trash or treasure’. Although I was surprised the children were grouped by ability at such a young age, I was able to see the benefit for the children. Nomi discusses how ability grouping can be effect children in the early years
“… ability grouping may improve achievement for all students in schools with advantageous characteristics, mostly private schools, and may reduce achievement inequalities, because low-ability students benefit the most from this practice.” (Nomi, T. 2009)
When observing in the reception classes and speaking to the teachers it became evident that there were certain pressures which effected how they taught in their classrooms. Research suggests that there are four main influences on the teaching in the early years “practitioners' beliefs about how literacy should be taught; different interpretations of the Foundation Stage curriculum guidance, both of which may be linked to training and experience; perceived external pressure from the demands of the primary school curriculum and parental pressure.” (Miller,L. Smith, AP. 2010)
Form this placement I plan to take the games into my future practice. I also plan to take the assessment sheets created by the teachers in the reception classes and adapt them for my own classes to allow the children to celebrate their successes and work on their weaknesses.
